Ulster County rail, trail plans draw attention in several studies

A caboose and station house along state Route 28 in the Olive hamlet of Shokan are shown earlier this year. (Freeman photo by Tania Barricklo)

Across the country, there are hundreds of examples of trains and trails existing side by side, including, in some instances, trails that run adjacent to high-speed passenger trains.

In fact, recent estimates suggest there are more than 140 rails with trails totaling more than 1,400 miles nationwide.

In Ulster County, members of the newly reconstituted Railroad Advisory Committee decided they needed to see for themselves whether a pedestrian and bicycle trail can coexist with a scenic train that the Catskill Mountain Railroad hopes to one day run between Kingston and Phoenicia, or whether, as Ulster County Executive Michael Hein has proposed, the tracks should be removed, except for a stretch between Mount Tremper and Phoenicia, with the remaining rail corridor converted to a recreational trail.

Committee members said they would tour the tracks as part of their "fact-finding" efforts.

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"We want to get a real idea of what is something we have the ability to rehabilitate and what is beyond rehabilitation," said the committee's former chairman, Michael Berardi.

Ultimately, the committee will make a recommendation to the county Legislature, which will decide whether to convert the railroad tracks into a trail or maintain the corridor as a rail line leased to the Catskill Mountain Railroad, a privately owned business that operates scenic trains on two small segments of the track -- one in Kingston, the other between Mount Tremper and Phoenicia.

A number of studies dating to 2006 suggest that the former Ulster & Delaware Railroad corridor, which runs through Ulster County, doesn't offer the right conditions for a rail-with-trail configuration.

A 2006 study commissioned by the Ulster County Transportation Council and conducted by Alta Planning & Design determined "it is not feasible to operate both a trail and train together within the entire corridor due to right-of-way topography constraints."

In that report, consultants proposed a fragmented trail that offered a mix of rail line and trail along the corridor. Under that scenario, parts of the corridor would have no trail, while other segments would require new construction to accommodate a trail.

A report issued this past February by the Catskill Mountain Railroad conceded the obstacles to creating a rail-with-trail setup along the entire length of the corridor but embraces the mixed-use concept outlined in the Alta report.

A new report by the National Park Service's Rivers, Trails & Conservation Assistance Program said that proposal is "different enough from typical rail-with-trail construction that it is more accurately described as rail-plus-trail construction, where a new trail is built almost entirely from scratch, independent of the existing railroad grade.

According to that study, in the vast majority of instances where the two are able to coexist successfully and cost-effectively, the trails are along corridors that, at one time, were double-tracked, meaning two trains could travel side by side on separate tracks. In those instances, the trail was constructed in the no-longer-used rail bed.

In railroad corridors designed to accommodate only a single-track railroad and containing a significant number of rock cuts, steep embankments and bridges and trestles that are only one track in width, constructing a rail with trail becomes more complicated and expensive, the park service said.

"This is the case along the U&D corridor," its report states.

"Building this new trail will require new and specialized engineering and construction methods, along with extensive additional fill and other construction materials that are not required in more typical rail-with-trail construction," the report says.

The National Park Service estimates a rail-plus-trail arrangement would have a construction cost of about $1,200 per linear foot -- an amount "several times the cost of a more typical rail trail conversion."

A Parks & Trails New York review of the rail-with-trail proposal, in which both the Alta and Catskill Mountain Railroad studies were considered, put a price of more than $19 million on construction.

Harry Jameson, chairman of the Catskill Mountain Railroad, said the cost of restoring the track so it is usable for the railroad would be between $200,000 and $250,000 per mile, using mostly volunteer labor, which he said puts about a $4 million price tag on restoring the tracks between U.S. Route 209 and the Olive hamlet of Boiceville.

While it would be difficult, he said, the county could widen the corridor in several places to accommodate both the railroad and a trail. "With an excavator, you could probably do it in a day," Jameson said.

The Catskill Mountain Railroad report indicates that, along the Kingston-area stretch of track that runs between the Thruway and Hurley, there are numerous areas that would require excavation of rock cuts, expansion and relocation of culverts, or track crossings to accommodate the trail in that area. That report also said that, in some instances, a trail would have to be suspended alongside or below some bridges for the two to co-exist.

Neither that report nor the Alta report on which the railroad based its findings offers cost estimates for much of the work, which the National Park Service said in its report would be "prohibitive."

Hein's administration has declined to put a price on the cost of converting the railroad bed into a trail, saying planning has yet to be completed.

The state budget includes $2 million for what Hein referred to as "seed money" for the conversion of a stretch of track in the city of Kingston to a rail trail.

Ulster County Planner Chris White said widening the corridor to accommodate both the rails and a trail would cost between $1 million and $2 million per mile in those areas where widening would be possible. But in many places, he said, there is enough room only for a train to pass. A new trail would have to be constructed to go alongside and over tunnels and through areas where there only is enough room for a train to pass.

White said such construction would be both expensive and contrary to Americans With Disabilities Act requirements for a less-than-5-percent grade for trails.

Additionally, county officials have said the New York City Department of Environmental Protection will not allow both a train and a trail to cross its lands around the city-owned Ashokan Reservoir.

"Trying to do a rail alongside a trail would be many factors more expensive than rail only," White said.

"Basically, it's a factor of cost, the severe environmental impacts, property and liability issues, safety issues -- you total it all up, and if we leave the railroad in Kingston, it really precludes the possibility of a trail," White said.

"They're saying it would be too hard," Jameson responded. "Well, life is full of difficult things, and the best thing for Ulster County is to do both."

Catskill Mountain Railroad President Ernest Hunt said the railroad has submitted applications for two grants totaling $1.8 million under the state's Passenger Rail and Freight program to restore unusable sections of the railroad tracks. The only hitch, he said, is that the grant requires the railroad have at least a 10-year lease for the tracks it uses. The current 25-year lease between the county and the Catskill Mountain Railroad expires in 2016.

Dutchess County officials said the total cost of the 12.8-mile Dutchess Rail Trail came in at $21.16 million, including design, construction and inspection. The project received federal funding to cover 80 percent of the cost and state funding for 5 percent, leaving the county to pay 15 percent. Included in the cost, county officials said, was work to refurbish or construct nine bridges, as well as improve several large concrete culverts and construct or improve nine public parking lots.

The Harlem Valley Rail Trail, which stretches 10.8 miles through the eastern portion of Dutchess County, cost roughly $2.4 million to construct and was funded with 84 percent federal aid.

In both cases, the railroad track that ran through the corridor had been removed previously.

Although Dutchess officials were unable to provide specific data regarding the economic benefits of the rail trails, Colleen Pillus, a spokeswoman for County Executive Marc Molinaro, said a number of business have "sprouted up" near the trails.

The creation of the Dutchess Rail Trail, she said, led to the renovation of the historic Hopewell Depot in East Fishkill, turning a once derelict building into a "thriving destination."

Lisa Deleeuw, executive director of the Harlem Valley Rail Trail, said business owners around the trail heads have said between 20 and 30 percent of their guests are rail trail visitors.

"As far as the economic benefit ... all you have to do is come here and see the traffic that is here and the people who are here," she said of Millerton, an eastern Dutchess County village in which a trail head is located. "A lot of the businesses are saying rail trail users are a significant part of their business.

"For anyone to say these trails in these rural areas are not great for economic development is extremely short-sighted," Deleeuw said.

Additionally, she said, real estate professionals have told her the trail is a draw that influences potential homebuyers.

"We just got another state grant for $300,000 to design another trail," Deleeuw said. "They don't give away money if they don't think there's a benefit."

According to a 2008 survey by the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation regarding the town of Hurley Rail Trail, more than 10 percent of the trail's users were non-locals who said they spent an average of $202.35 per visit, which, when the multiplier effect of that money is considered, totals some $2 million annually, the report states.

Other reports have put the estimated annual usage of the Hurley trail at 81,157 annually and of the Hudson Valley Rail Trail, in southern Ulster County, at more than 650,000 annually.

The economic impact of the Catskill Mountain Railroad's scenic trains is difficult to quantify. Estimated annual ridership of the two trains is about 12,225, with the majority on the Esopus Scenic line between Mount Tremper and Phoenicia.

Under the terms of the lease between the Catskill Mountain Railroad and Ulster County, the railroad must turn over 5 percent of its fares to the county. According to the county, over the course of the last several years, that amount has totalled roughly $4,500 annually. County Attorney Bea Havranek, however, said recently that requests by the county for the railroad's books have gone unanswered.

Jameson has said studies show other tourist trains attract thousands of riders each season and that he believes the Catskill Mountain Railroad, once completed, could have a similar draw.